The-Study-on-the-Differences--Between-Western-Friendship-and-Chinese-Friendship

1、Intercultural Communication.2016 The Study on the Differences Between Western Friendship and Chinese Friendship姓 名： 学 号： 学 院：电 子 院Friendship both in Chinese culture and Western culture figures the relation between two people who may not blood relative but have comfortable relationship. People look u

2、p to friendship in both culture and regard it as an important part of a comfortable social life. Who has a large amount of friends usually the one people admire on in both culture.The interact with friends such as chatting, game, wandering, shopping or travel brings pleasant to people in both cultur

3、e. Since we human are gregarious, friendship plays a crucial role in daily life no matter in which culture.But when we said friendship, its intension differentiates in Chinese people with those who grows in Western culture. Though friendship is not exactly same among various western culture, this pa

4、per will not focus on those. The paper will discuss the difference between Chinese friendship and common Western friendship. The duration of friendshipWe Chinese usually expect the friendship last as long as possible, lifelong would be the best. Even though people separate from each other, the frien

5、dship could maintain. The words in western wedding “we will not separate till the death” is suitable for Chinses friendship. The friendly relation in short time, which is friendship in western culture, do not regard as friendship in Chinese culture. So it is easy for a western people make friends as

6、 well as end a relationship to a friend. The extension of friendshipIt is a kind of solid relationship in Chinses culture. It is critical decision to select friends. As the Chinese saying “Who close to red turns red while close to black turns black”, which means the one has descent friends will be d

7、escent and the one mess in the rude will behave the same. It takes time for Chinese people to recognize the potential friends and gradually open the heart. Once they are friends, they share nearly every secret. And the frank relation will last for a very long time. It may be the confusing part for w

8、estern people. Since they hardly share secret with friends that much. Western people are willing to keep independency, which let them separate friendship with duty of social and work. For example, they unlikely lie in court in order to help friends away from punishment, which is more common in Chine

9、se society. Friends in Chinses culture will help each other in more domains, not only leisure time but work and career as well. The one may recommend the other one to a job just because they are friends. So in Chinese society the quality and the quantity of friends effect the quality of life.The ext

10、ension of friendship in western culture is larger than that in Chinese culture. The roommates, colleges and neighbors are counted in friends in western culture. But in Chinese culture, they are usually seen as acquaintance. For this reason, western people are not as close to their friends as Chinese

11、 people, though they are friends. Probably reasons why friendship means differentChina stays in agriculture stage for a very long time till the late twenty-century, which requires a more collective cooperation in order to keep the harvest. Friendship comes from cooperation and becomes the fundamenta

12、l part of moral principles. The collectivism is popular in Chinese culture, which means people sacrifice their own profit to maintain the collective profit including country, family and friends. While the western society got into the capitalism for more than 200 years. This makes them more independe

13、nce than those who stay in agriculture society. The substance is sufficient in their society. Which let western people have the substance fundament to keep their independence. They think personal profit is the first thing to concern about. It is hard for them to understand the friendship of Chinese

14、culture. So do the Chinese people. The interact with friendsIn Chinese culture, friends have few secrets. And friendship is a very close relationship which those who are friends feels responsible to each other in many aspect of daily life. So that fiends are more like to help each other. For example

15、, an extremely usual scenery in Chinese university is that one takes foods from canting to his or her friend who is playing games or just wake up late because of friends asking. In this case, his or her friend is able to go out the dormitory to eat himself, but as the friend he or her take foods. Th

16、is is a kind of unnecessary assistant, which is hardly seen in western culture. Because people growing up in western culture value independency which are taught from their childhood. In any situation, if one can handle it himself then should not ask others for help. Also, they preserve their persona

17、l space when they interact with friends. They keep the distance and pay attention to their manners. When friends go out for foods and funs, western people are likely to pay their own bill instead of one person pays all the bill which is fairly common in Chinese culture. Most of time the treat in Chi

18、nese culture is mutual, this one treat today and the other one treat next time. It shows hospitality of those who pays the bill. Also this kind of behavior could promote payers self-confidence. But the self-confidence comes from the other source in western culture. The one who pays his own bill and

19、does not owe any other fells more confidence in western culture. When it comes to debt, friends in different culture deal in different way. In Chinese culture, asking friend pay off debt is something killing. If someone does so, his friend will astonish and feel hurt even though the deadline has pas

20、sed. Friend thinks that the one ask for paying off is not treat him as friend and shows unrespect. The friendship between them may go to the end after that. In western culture, this kind of ask is fine. Friend will feel shame about forgetting the dead line and is likely to pay off the debt. In another hand, debt between friends is not that common in western culture. The way to make friends with other cultureFirst of all, it is necessary to understand the difference in that cultu